Ripple price analysis: XRP/USD stays below $0.40, vulnerable to further losses

XRP/USD is hovering below $0.4060, having recovered from the recent low of $0.3868. The third largest coin with the current market capitalization of $17.0 billion managed to settle above the critical $0.40 handle; however, the upside momentum is too weak to allow for an extended recovery. XRP/USD has lost over 3% of its value since this time on Monday, moving in sync with the rest of the market.

Looking technically, the inial barrier is created by SMA50 (Simple Moving Average) 1-hour at $0.4050. Once it is out of the way, the upside is likely to gain traction with the next focus on $0,4100 strengthened by SMA100 1-hour. The ultimate resistance awaits on approach to psychological $0.4200 with SMA50 on a daily chart just below that handle.

On the downside, A strong barrier lies with $0.40. Once it is cleared, the sell-off is likely to gain traction with the next focus on the recent low of $0.3895.

Meanwhile, the chief technical officer of Ripple Labs David Schwartz believes that the world is just not ready for blockchain. While xCurrent and xRapid technologies can solve the problems of slow and costly transactions, banks and large financial institutions are in no hurry to jump to it as they are too conservative and rigid, according to Ripple's CTO.

Among other roadblocks on the way to blockchain mass adoption, he mentioned regulatory uncertainty, thin liquidity and immaturity of the cryptocurrency ecosystem as a whole.

XRP/USD, 4-hour chart